Small Business Data Sources: Best Places To Find Free Data Sets

Successful entrepreneurs such as Tesla founder Elon Musk are glorified as bold risk-takers. People sing Musk’s praises for his gamble in investing his $180 million Paypal proceeds to three separate companies. For Musk, however, the multi-million dollar deals were not gambles. He knew the facts were on his side. As a result, his three companies now have a combined value of over $23 billion.

Don’t let the hype blind you because successful entrepreneurs grow their business by seeing trends before everybody else. Stay ahead of the curve with these small business data sources.

1. The U.S. Small Business Administration

The site hosts a collection of resources which provides free access to data gathered by the US government about business and economic statistics. Small business data is broken into the following categories:

Provides an overview of small business profiles for each state and for the entire country with information on employment, income and finance, business owner demographics, business turnover, and small businesses by industry and by county. The report has been published annually since 2009.

Data in this report was put together by the U.S. Census Bureau spanning from 2006 to 2015. The data covers expenses involved for new and used equipment and structures by all U.S. nonfarm companies. ACES closely examines the investment shares over time to observe which industries are growing or shrinking and where capital markets and firms see the greatest investment opportunity.

The report looks at the educational attainment of the adult population by demographic and social characteristics such as age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, and disability status. It also looks at differences in educational attainment between people born in the US versus people born in other countries. Historical data to illustrate a number of general trends over time is included as well.

This report shows information on median household income and the Gini index of income inequality according to the 2014 and 2015 American Community Surveys (ACS).

3. Bureau of Labor Statistics

BLS is the leading source of quality data for labor economics and statistics. It offers access to information highly relevant to the establishment and successful operations of businesses such as current employment statistics, census of employment and wages, labor force trends, and consumer spending habits through the following reports:

The monthly survey of households provides detailed data on employment, labor force, unemployment, individuals not in the labor force, hours of work, earnings as well as labor force and demographic characteristics.

The annual report shows integrated data in the form of tables such as average expenditures, income, and characteristics for consumer units classified in various categories. The Consumer Expenditure Survey pinpoints spending patterns and examines changes in expenditure for the year.

4. Kauffman

Kauffman Foundation is one of largest foundations in the country founded by Ewing Marion Kauffman whose vision is to cultivate an economically independent society. The foundation annually releases the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurship series measuring US entrepreneurship across various geographic levels through the following reports:

The report considers three components of local, small business activity: the rate of businesses owners in the economy, the 5-year survival rate of businesses, and the established small business density.

Calculations are derived from the Current Population Survey, with sample sizes of over 900,000 observations, in addition to the Business Dynamics Statistics, covering roughly five million businesses.

The study considers three components of entrepreneurial business growth: the rate of startup growth, the share of scale-ups, and high growth company density.

The calculations are derived from the Business Dynamics Statistics which covers roughly five million companies and Inc. 5000 data which is the magazine’s annual ranking of the fastest-growing companies in the country.

5. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

FDIC offers data on private sector loans to small businesses. They have the following report available for download:

6. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor

This report provides high quality information by tracking rates of entrepreneurship globally across several stages and gauging its characteristics along with the motivations and ambitions of business owners.

7. The Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute

GEDI is a research institute which seeks to promote knowledge regarding the links between prosperity, entrepreneurship, and economic development.

This report is released annually and measures the overall health of entrepreneurship environments in 137 participating nations. Ranking the performance of countries against each other, GEDI offers an image of how each country performs domestically and internationally.

8. HSBC

HSBC is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services companies that caters to over 37 million clients.

The financial institution recently released this report which seeks to understand the components and characteristics that make a successful entrepreneur. The report investigates an entrepreneur’s personal motivation, background, experience, and culture.

9. Indeed

Indeed is the most comprehensive search engine for jobs. They recently launched the Indeed Hiring Lab which studies the wealth of information accessible from Indeed in conjunction with government and independent research. Indeed Hiring Lab focuses on large-scale labor research projects along with tracking and analysis of employment trends through these reports:

Indeed compares people’s current location with their actual job searches to come up with data that provides a picture of workforce movement. The study reveals the interests and intents of job seekers, uncovering opportunities for business owners to attract and retain candidates and understand why and where people move to find jobs.

Examining anonymous data of more than 400,000 employed job hunters on Indeed, the study answers the following questions about job seekers: which jobs they’re leaving, which ones are they taking, and which factors influence their decision. The insights from this report can help organizations formulate informed decisions to attract high-caliber talent.

10. Wasp Barcode

Wasp Barcode, a leading provider of barcode hardware and software, helps its customers answer challenging business questions through their report:

The company randomly selected 1,000 small business respondents from various industries. The report was able to collect data from entrepreneurs on topics such as confidence in the economy, business challenges, hiring plans, staffing requirements, marketing strategies, government influence, changes in IT expenses, and application.

11. Business Insider

Business Insider is an online publication specializing in business, finance and tech. Since 2014, they’ve been publishing the following survey:

The study involving over 200 founders, CEOs, presidents, partners explores what empowers and challenges business owners. The respondents give their inputs about their optimism for the upcoming year and how they see the importance of technology to remain competitive.

12. Firstround

First Round Network is a platform connecting founders and decision-makers. The result is a digital community that offers access to fascinating data including:

The study involves more than 700 founders weighing in on topics such as leadership, recruitment, revenues, culture, fundraising, investments, and exits. The company has been conducting the study every year since 2015.

13. Infusionsoft

The company focuses solely on small businesses to facilitate the acceleration of their growth through technology, sales, marketing plans, and community building.

This annual report is a survey of 1,000 American small business owners regarding their goals, tactics, and challenges for the upcoming year. The study seeks to answer the following questions:

What are small business owners hoping to achieve with their marketing in 2017?

What are they struggling with?

Which tactics are small businesses using to meet their goals, and which do they see as most important to their business?

How can small businesses leverage digital marketing tactics and tools to stay ahead of the competition?

14. The National Federation of Independent Business

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) consists of 325,000 small businesses in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The federation works to endorse policies that foster small business success. The NFIB publishes the following survey:

15. Bank of America Newsroom

As one of the world’s leading financial firms, Bank of America serves individual consumers in addition to small and middle-market businesses as well as large corporations providing a wide range of financial services from banking to risk management. Bank of America publishes the following semiannual report:

16. Babson College

Its purpose is to promote knowledge, ideas to cultivate a healthy entrepreneurial environment, contribute to small business growth and job creation in the country. The report looks closely at challenges and opportunities that small business owners face such as access to capital, regulatory environment, workforce, and technology.

17. HubSpot

The developer and marketer of software products for inbound marketing and sales has been publishing the following report since 2010:

The study highlights the highest concerns, priorities faced by marketers and sales professionals nowadays. In addition, State of Inbound offers a peek into future trends and technologies that will influence the way business is conducted.

Conclusion

Knowing your market better than your competitor not only keeps you ahead of the pack, it also gives you the opportunity to predict the next economic trends. Once you have your data, consider publishing it with the best chart software. What do you think about these small business data sources? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

About the Author

Henry Kanapi is a staff writer for Fit Small Business specializing in business and e-commerce. Henry ran small businesses while working as an editor for a small business/motivational website before joining the Fit Small Business team. When not writing, he's busy organizing poetry slam events or playing basketball.

Related Posts

Reader Interactions

Submit Your CommentDisclaimer: Reviews on FitSmallBusiness.com are the product of independent research by our writers, researchers, and editorial team. User reviews and comments are contributions from independent users not affiliated with FitSmallBusiness.com's editorial team. Banks, issuers, credit card companies, and other product & service providers are not responsible for any content posted on FitSmallBusiness.com. As such, they do not endorse or guarantee any posted comments or reviews.Cancel reply

You must be logged in to comment. Click the "Log in With LinkedIn" button below to connect instantly and comment.

Social

Contact Us

Disclaimer: We spend hours researching and writing our articles and strive to provide accurate, up-to-date content. However, our research is meant to aid your own, and we are not acting as licensed professionals. We recommend that you consult with your own lawyer, accountant, or other licensed professional for relevant business decisions. Click here to see our full disclaimer.

Product or company names, logos, and trademarks referred to on this site belong to their respective owners.